Histories of virtual reality -- Virtually real and really virtual -- Technological intimacy and social estrangement in strange days -- Virtual identities and material bodies -- Virtual reality, transcendence and flights from embodiment in source code -- Technology, embodiment and being-in-the-world -- Virtuality and simulation in William Gibson's Zero history -- Conclusion
Summary
The idea of virtual realities has a long and complex historical trajectory, spanning from Plato's concept of the cave and the simulacrum, to artistic styles such as Trompe L'oeil, and more recently developments in 3D film, television and gaming. However, this book will pay particular attention to the time between the 1980s to the 1990s when virtual reality and cyberspace were represented, particularly in fiction, as a wondrous technology that enabled transcendence from the limitations of physical embodiment. The purpose of this critical historical analysis of representations of virtual reality
